Some vehicles may operate in various modes which provide different levels of control to a driver. For instance, typical vehicles may operate in manual driving modes, where a driver controls acceleration, deceleration, and steering of the vehicle as well as semiautonomous mode, such as cruise control, where computing devices of the vehicle control acceleration and deceleration while a driver controls steering, etc. In some instances, these vehicles may also operate in autonomous driving modes where the computing devices of the vehicle controls all of braking, all of the acceleration, deceleration and steering of the vehicle without continuous input from a driver or passenger. In the autonomous mode, the passenger may provide some initial input, such as a destination location, and the vehicle maneuvers itself to that destination.
Typically when operating in an autonomous mode, where the human driver has no input on the control of the vehicle's acceleration, deceleration or steering, a switch to manual mode can be made using input at a steering wheel, acceleration or deceleration pedal, or other some other user input. When using one of these inputs to change modes, there is an inherent delay between the time when the driver uses the input to when the vehicle's control computing devices (which control the vehicle in the autonomous driving mode) completely release control of the acceleration, deceleration and steering. In order to allow a safe transition where the driver is guaranteed control of the vehicle this “transition” may effectively cause the vehicle's control computing devices to immediately cease sending signals to the acceleration, deceleration, and steering systems of the vehicle.